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“The Alienware 55 OLED is the most beautiful gaming monitor we’ve ever seen.”
- OLED looks incredible
- Variable refresh rate up to 120Hz
- Thin bezels and frame
- Optimized game modes
- No smart features
- Dolby Vision and G-Sync still in the works
Gaming monitors are having a moment. For years, televisions have housed the latest technology and held an unshakable monopoly on the living room, leaving monitors to rule only the desk. That’s starting to change at CES 2019.
OLED has long teased gamers, becoming real only with the Alienware 13m gaming laptop, where it was wonderful but much smaller than most gamers hoped. But here at CES 2019, Alienware has introduced the very first OLED gaming monitor. Yes, it looks every bit as incredible as you might imagine. Is this the holy grail of gaming monitors?
Words can’t do justice to a monitor like this, but you’ve laid eyes on a 55-inch OLED television before, you know what to expect. Shadowy scenes are deep, contrast is sky high, and colors are so vibrant you’ll swear you were seeing in black-and-white before. With color gamut up to 95 percent DCI-P3, you’ll take in colors that just aren’t possible on most current LCD monitors. That’s what OLED brings to the Alienware 55 monitor.
Of course, the Alienware 55 is HDR-capable as an OLED display. VESA only recently announced its technical requirements for HDR OLED, and Alienware says it’s still in the process of seeing how its monitor fits into the different formats. What we can say is the quality of the HDR here is well-beyond what you see in an HDR1000 LCD panel. That’s the magic of OLED.
More CES 2019 coverage
- A true gaming desktop replacement? The Alienware Area-51m gets closer than ever
- The HP Spectre x360 is bringing OLED back to laptops, and it’s gorgeous
So yes, it’s a beautiful screen. But, why not just buy an OLED TV? It’s a good question, and it was the first one we asked. According to Alienware, the calling card is the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, which means you can push your gaming PC’s performance over 100 FPS without screen-tearing or stuttering. That’s what separates this from a standard OLED TV.
The feature, however, is not exclusive to Alienware. LG’s newest OLED televisions now sport the same 120Hz refresh rates, which means this new wave of living room ready gaming monitors have serious competition.
Adaptive sync is another distinguisher for gaming displays. It’s an important feature that gamers look for in gaming monitors, whether through Nvidia’s G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync. Alienware says it’s still working with these companies to nail down where its monitor fits in. The company hasn’t officially committed to either, but the current model is not currently a G-Sync monitor. With Nvidia’s new “G-Sync Compatible,” program, though, there’s the possibility it could be supported by G-Sync if it passes validation. Representatives from Alienware said G-Sync would still be considered in the future.
The Alienware 55 has other gaming-specific tricks up its sleeve, however. It has several modes to support different game genres that Alienware says will be optimized for those types of games. Alienware wasn’t clear about what exactly these modes would do, and they weren’t quite ready for action yet, either.
Beyond its excellent screen, the Alienware 55 still impresses. The screen is surrounded by tiny bezels and the frame is miniscule, too. It’s not wallpaper-thick, but the top half of the cabinet immediately caught our attention.
Words can’t do justice to a display this good.
The screen sits on a more traditional base than the Omen X Emperium, allowing both swivel, height, and tilt adjustments. The back of the cabinet has a minimalist look, matching the company’s new “Legend” design. We prefer this Alienware’s aesthetic over the Omen X, which looks more generic. Of course, the Alienware has a strip of light across the back that can sync with games and make your wall glow – just as it should.
The Alienware 55 has competition. HP brought its Omen X Emperium, a 65-inch gaming monitor specifically as part of Nvidia’s BFGD (Big Format Gaming Display) rollout. It’s not OLED, however, and its price is set at a staggering $5,000. The price is currently unannounced. It will be an important point of consideration for the Alienware, which must compete with not only other gaming monitors, but also OLED TVs.
We don’t have a firm release date for the Alienware, but the company reassured us this wasn’t just a concept. It’s a real product coming out later this year — and we can’t wait to get more time with it.
- Best monitor deals: Gaming, office, curved, OLED and more
- MSI has some massive QD-OLED monitor news in the works
- Alienware is playing coy with its two new QD-OLED monitors
- 11 best gaming monitors of 2023: tested and reviewed
- Best OLED monitor deals: Get an OLED screen from just $370


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- The double whammy. The cost differential in manufacturing a garment is about 15 to 1 domestic/offshore. This was a clear boom for the US apparel industry. But people often look past the impact on existing import prices during an excess capacity/deflationary input cost environment. Factory owners locked up multi-year deals with US brands and retailers at fire-sale rates to ensure factories did not run idle. The bottom line is that 2-3% annual import price reductions combined with a 3-point average annual increase in the import ratio resulted in unprecedented cost savings for the industry. Our math suggests about $4-5bn, or about 3 points of margin per year.
- Where'd the money go?? About 70% of the cash was passed through to consumers to stimulate demand. The other portion padded industry margins. The key call-out here is that pricing came down, per capita consumption rose dramatically, and margins went UP. We can't find many examples in other industries where pricing comes down and margins go up. This industry had lots of cake and ate it all.
- Now what? 1) The import ratio just hit 99%. Ouch! Not much room to go there. 2) Apparel import costs are rising at the greatest rate since 1992. Unless oil is going back to $50, this industry has a lasting problem. Ouch again!
7 Tweets Summing Up What You Need to Know About Today's GDP Report
"There's a tremendous opportunity to educate people in our profession on how GDP is stated and projected," Hedgeye CEO Keith McCullough wrote today. Here's everything you need to know about today's GDP report.read more
GOLD: A Deep Dive on What’s Next with a Top Commodities Strategist
“If you saved in gold over the past 20 to 25 years rather than any currency anywhere in the world, gold has outperformed all these currencies,” says Stefan Wieler, Vice President of Goldmoney in this edition of Real Conversations.read more
Inside the Atlanta Fed's Flawed GDP Tracker
"The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNowcast model, while useful at amalgamating investor consensus on one singular GDP estimate for any given quarter, is certainly not the end-all-be-all of forecasting U.S. GDP," writes Hedgeye Senior Macro analyst Darius Dale.read more
People's Bank of China Spins China’s Bad-Loan Data
PBoC Deputy Governor Yi says China's non-performing loan problem has “pretty much stabilized." "Yi is spinning. China’s bad-debt problem remains serious," write Benn Steil and Emma Smith, Council on Foreign Relations.read more
UnderArmour: 'I Am Much More Bearish Than I Was 3 Hours Ago'
“The consumer has a short memory.” Yes, Plank actually said this," writes Hedgeye Retail analyst Brian McGough. "Last time I heard such arrogance was Ron Johnson."read more
Buffalo Wild Wings: Complacency & Lack of Leadership (by Howard Penney)
"Buffalo Wild Wings has been plagued by complacency and a continued lack of adequate leadership," writes Hedgeye Restaurants analyst Howard Penney.read more
An Update on Defense Spending by Lt. Gen Emo Gardner
"Congress' FY17 omnibus appropriation will fully fund the Pentagon's original budget request plus $15B of its $30B supplemental request," writes Hedgeye Potomac Defense Policy analyst Lt. Gen Emerson "Emo" Gardner USMC Ret.read more

domain: news


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GameCo to launch first real money skill games in US casinos
GameCo, the company which created the world’s first real-money skill-based video game gambling machines (VGM) will launch its first games into multiple casinos across America later in 2016.
The news comes after GameCo recently announced it had raised both Seed and Series A financing totalling $8.25 million, with the most recent round led by Javelin Venture Partners, with further financial involvement from Courtside Ventures, QB1 Ventures, New York Angels and Steel Partners amongst a variety of individual investors.
GameCo’s business vision is to establish a VIP destination for the next generation of casino customers – essentially a casino of the future. The skill-based games cater for a younger audience of gamblers, combining the entertainment and engagement of video games with the thrill and excitement of gambling.
The first VGM is expected to hit casino floors in Atlantic City this year.
Founded in 2015, GameCo’s machines offer an arcade-style video game cabinet and controller and feature a single-player game which normally takes between 60 and 90 seconds to play.
The VGM machine pays out depending on the player’s skill using its patented platform across a variety of genres such as sports, racing, action and adventure.
Based in New York and with offices in Las Vegas, GameCo CEO Blaine Graboyes said the possibilities are endless for his breakthrough company.
“Casinos are eager to get the machines on their floors and study how their customers react to the revolutionary prospect of video game gambling. The key to success is balancing the game design and game math,” Graboyes said.
“We’re working closely with our casino and game partners to learn from player data and feedback and to optimize the gameplay experience.”
Javelin Venture Partners Managing Director Jed Katz explained why his company was so keen to get involved with the venture, recognizing the market shift towards skill-based games as opposed to traditional, luck-based casino games amongst the younger generations.
“GenX and Millennials don’t play slots, but they do play video games,” Katz said.
“And while casinos have been attracting those customers with hot nightclubs, bars, and restaurants, it’s only logical that they offer a gambling product that’s attractive and fun for this customer base.
“We love GameCo’s methodical approval to filling that void and we expect that they will establish a long term leadership position in a space that’s about to get really big.”
GameCo was established by a group of people with vast experience in video gaming, casino gaming, technology and live events and has come together with experienced executives from leading gaming brands IGT, AGS and Scientific Games.
Additionally, the company has also brought together award-winning producers for game publishers such as Blizzard Entertainment, Ubisoft, DreamWorks, WarGaming and The World Series Of Video Games to help build its product.
Deepen Parikh, Partner at Courtside Ventures, said the possibilities could be endless for GameCo once its games hit the casino floor.
“GameCo’s vision of offering video gaming experiences within casinos, presents a unique opportunity to be a part of both, the multi-hundred billion dollar slot machine industry and the rapidly growing global esports market,” Parikh said.
“Blaine has brought together a group of highly experienced casino and gaming industry veterans, developing what we believe is a strong competitive advantage, in a highly regulated industry.”


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Ten post jest także dostępny w języku: polski
The online distribution of dermocosmetics on the Polish market is carried out by online pharmacies, e-stores, including online drugstores and perfumeries (rossmann.pl, hebe.pl, superpharm.pl, notino.pl) or internet portals. According to PMR forecast, the e-stores dermocosmetics market will grow at a double-digit rate in 2021.
The recent years brought about major changes in the cosmetic e-commerce market. The largest market players launched their e-stores. With the launch of Hebe’s online health and beauty store in July 2019, all major cosmetic chains on the Polish market became present in the internet channel.
In 2020, a high increase of the cosmetics online sales (total online sales of cosmetics, including dermocosmetics) was influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic, which paralysed the Polish retail trade. Moreover, it should be expected that the coronavirus will prove to be a positive factor supporting the development of online sales of cosmetic products also in the long term. Some consumers may get more accustomed to shopping online and continue to make purchases this way.
Online dermocosmetics market
The internet distribution of dermocosmetics on the Polish market is carried out by online pharmacies. In January 2021, there were 251 active mail-order pharmacies in the official Pharmacy Register. Nevertheless, according to an analysis conducted by PMR, there were 141 unique (the number from the register also includes the same e-pharmacy assigned to several offline pharmacies) and operating e-pharmacies. In addition, there are also manufacturers’ e-stores e.g. L’Oreal (mydermacenter.pl), Oceanic/L’biotica (estore.oceanic.com.pl), online health and beauty stores and perfumeries (rossmann.pl, hebe.pl, superpharm.pl, notino.pl) or internet portals (e.g. allegro.pl) which also offer dermocosmetics.
The online sales of dermocosmetics have very good prospects, with forecasts showing a double-digit growth rate for this channel in value terms over 2021-2024. In the forecast horizon up to 2026, the positive growth of this channel is expected to slow down slightly, which will result, among others, from the increasing market saturation.


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As individuals stay stuck in your home throughout the pandemic Amazon has actually been continuing to bulk up its labor force. On Tuesday the business revealed that it will be including 100,000 seasonal employees to assist it manage need heading into the holiday.
In a news release the business states that it’s searching for individuals to join its “operations network include stowing, picking, packing shipping and delivering customer orders” in addition to a “wide variety of other jobs including managing people, being a safety ambassador, working in HR, IT, operating robotics, and more.”
While huge sellers have actually typically upped their personnels with seasonal employees throughout the holiday, Amazon has actually been especially aggressive in employing in current months. In March it statedthroughout the pandemic, broadening that in . In May it revealed that it would be it worked with, with the business most just recently hosting where it was seeking to fill 33,000 positions.
The hiring comes simply a couple of weeks eliminated from the business’s huge Prime Day sale and right prior to Black Friday, which occurs on Nov. 27.


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Trade policy and regulation
Money exchange units banned from selling foreign currency
Money exchange units that represent commercial banks are now prohibited from selling foreign currency, according to the Bank of the Lao PDR. Became effective on October 11, the ban supports the government’s attempts to give commercial banks a greater role in the purchase and sale ...
Govt to push businesses to boost production for Chinese market
The government is set to hold talks with business operators to encourage them to produce more of the goods required by Chinese buyers. The government’s plan to promote commercial production associated with the Laos-China railway, which is scheduled to come into service next month, to ...
Lao PDR: Economy Recovers then Falters Again under COVID-19
The Lao economy is on course for moderately improved growth in 2021, despite the second wave of COVID-19 denting the promising economic recovery made early in the year. The World Bank’s latest Economic Monitor for Lao PDR — A Path to Recovery —predicts that GDP ...
Laos govt reviews conditions for import and sale of vehicles
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The government has instructed dealers who import and sell vehicles to present their documents to the Department of Import and Export of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce no later than November 29.If a company fails to present their documents they ...
Laos to clamp down on imports in bid to curb rising exchange rate
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The government will introduce strict measures to regulate the import of consumer goods and bolster domestic production, in an attempt to reduce imports and cut capital flow to other countries.A surge in both legally and illegal imported goods from neighbouring countries ...
Cost of farmed fish exceeds price set by Lao government
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The price of farmed fish on sale in Vientiane markets is now higher than the price set by the government after many fish farmers suffered losses during the recent floods.Adding to their woes are the higher costs they incur in raising ...
Laos to stop quality testing of electronic, electric appliances
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The government has mandated to abolish quality tests for electronic and electrical appliances which are imported through the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge I. Ever since its implementation, this move seems to have impacted the business sector. This has led to the rise in ...
Lao firms demand regulation of illegal imports
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – A large number of Lao businesses that produce goods for the domestic market are at a disadvantage because nothing has been done to control the influx of illegally imported goods.“Many Lao firms are suffering from lost business because they can’t compete ...
Laos plans regulatory reforms to boost trade at border crossings
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – The Ministry of Industry and Commerce will continue efforts to improve or remove unnecessary measures and regulations relating to exports and imports to bolster cross-border trade.Officials in charge of trade facilitation met in Vientiane last week for the 2nd Trade Facilitation ...
Laos heading for half year trade surplus
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/ANN) – Laos is likely to enjoy a trade surplus of about US$121 million for the first six months of the year, even as the government is predicting an overall trade deficit of around US$259 million for 2019.Projected exports for the first six ...


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Some of the internet’s top engineers have banded together to put a stop to an anti-piracy bill, arguing it could pose a major technological barrier for the internet and prevent new innovations.
In an open letter that was published as a full-page ad in Wednesday’s The New York Times, the Washington Post and other national newspapers, Silicon Valley’s top engineers signed at the bottom, including Sergey Brin of Google, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Elon Musk of PayPal (EBay), Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, CNN Money reported.
“We, the undersigned, have played various parts in building a network called the Internet. We wrote and debugged the software; we defined the standards and protocols that talk over that network. Many of us invented parts of it. We're just a little proud of the social and economic benefits that our project, the Internet, has brought with it,” wrote the internet moguls.
The letter was published a day before House Judiciary committee members will debate on the Stop Online Privacy Act introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.). Although Smith’s bill has attracted tons of support from media firms and the Hollywood industry, web companies and public interest groups strong oppose it, the Washington Post reported.
SOPA aims to cut the amount of pirated content online and would give content owners and the US government the power to request court orders to shut down websites associated with piracy, the BBC reported. The bill also aims to stop online ad networks and payment processors from doing business with foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.
“If enacted, either of these bills will create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure,” internet engineers wrote in the letter. “Regardless of recent amendments to SOPA, both bills will risk fragmenting the Internet's global domain name system (DNS) and have other capricious technical consequences.”
Smith, a member of the Tea Party, has become Hollywood’s top ally, simply because he heads the House Judiciary committee, which drafts copyright laws. He has scheduled a vote on Thursday on SOPA, CBS News reported. The television, movie and music industries are top donors to his 2012 campaign committee, CBS News reported.
Most lawmakers support SOPA, although California Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D) and Darrell Issa (R) have asked the committee to reconsider the bill and amendments to it in a hearing, the Washington Post reported.


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News: China Used Equipment & Remanufacturing Summit 2011
Organized by Duxes, China Used Equipment & Remanufacturing Summit 2011 will take place on 11-12 January, 2011 in Beijing, China.
Thursday, 2nd December 2010
In developed countries, the used equipment industry is praised as the “gold industry” while remanufacturing is also an environmental-friendly repair option. China enjoys an annual growth rate of more than 20% in transactions of second-hand engineering machinery and equipment. With the newly-released standards and rising attention towards the industry, the summit is launched. It’s aimed to share with attendees the first-hand information of industrial policies and regulations and the trends of Chinese used equipment & remanufacturing development. It will provide a platform to bring together international experts and leaders to share experience and forecast the international technology. For more information, please visit the official event website www.duxes-events.com/uerm.


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Troubled Japanese electronics giant Sharp president Takashi Okuda announces the company's third-quarter financial results in Tokyo on February 1, 2013. Sharp said on February 1 that its loss in the nine months to December doubled to $4.6 billion as the embattled Japanese electronics giant struggles to repair its tattered balance sheet. AFP PHOTO / Yoshikazu TSUNO
Sharp Corp President Takashi Okuda (C) is surrounded by media reporters after the mid-year financial result press conference on November 1, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan. Sharp revised their fiscal year forecast downward to 450 billion Japanese yen, or 5.6 billion U.S. dollars.


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The Department of Tourism works to position Sitges as the best international wedding destination. This new strategy to promote this market segment responds to the increase in couples from all over the world who choose Sitges to celebrate their nuptials. It is estimated that yearly, the town welcomes an approximate volume of more than 400 weddings, of which 25% are between foreign couples, according to data from the valuation study of the wedding segment of the town of Sitges performed by DNA, Consultora de Turismo y Ocio (DNA, Tourism and Leisure Consultant). These types of weddings featuring foreign couples generate longer stays and a greater economic impact. But beyond generating a significant economic effect, international wedding tourism also allows for deseasonalization and diversification. In light of this reality, the Department has evaluated the town’s potential as a destination for international weddings and the results were presented to professionals in this field as a part of the conference that took place this Thursday at the Dolce Sitges hotel.
The economic impact generated by these celebrations means 8.5 million euros in revenue for Sitges’ companies. This figure is even higher if the indirect impact is taken into account because if the stay is long, expenses for accommodation, purchases and catering must be added in.
The Department wants to promote this sector with a great future and plans to publish a new subsection in its own section on Sitges’ official tourism website www.sitgesanytime.com
Under the Sitges Weddings brand, the Department of Tourism brings together all the activities of this tourism segment that, at the same time, wants to encourage business cooperation.
WELCOME TO THE PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES


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KOLKATA: Leading television makers such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung and Videocon are hoping for a rebound in sales this year, thanks to a cricketing bonanza that will keep fans engrossed for over three months starting next month. The companies have set aside almost Rs 200 crore for marketing during the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup and Indian Premier League tournaments, which will be held one after the other.
Officials of these companies said the industry expects 30-35% growth in LED television sales in the February-May period from a year earlier, following an almost 20% drop in sales since last Diwali, even as prices are set to increase by 4-6% from this month due to a depreciating rupee and rising input costs. Sales of 4K television sets, which cost more than Rs 1 lakh each, may also get a boost.
“World Cup and
will act as a breather for the industry after television sales suddenly falling after Diwali,” said Videocon chief operating officer CM Singh. “We expect a distinct shift towards large-screen televisions this World Cup, so much that sales of 32 inches and above, which accounts for half of the industry, will become the largest segment,” he said.
Sony and Videocon plan to invest about Rs 30 crore each on marketing for the World Cup, while Panasonic will spend almost Rs 60 crore on televisions till IPL. Senior industry officials said Korean giants Samsung and LG, too, are likely to invest Rs 30-40 crore each.
The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, will take place from February 14 to March 29. The eighth edition of IPL is expected to start in early April.
Direct-to-home operators Tata Sky and Videocon have launched 4K set top boxes ahead of the tournaments, which television makers say will boost 4K television sales that cost upwards of Rs 1 lakh. These televisions have four times the number of pixels of high-definition models.
Sony India head (sales) Sunil Nayyar said the company will launch a World Cup campaign primarily on 4K television models, supported by offers such as freebies. “We expect to sell 5 lakh LED TV units in total during the period, doubling sales over last year,” he said.
Panasonic India managing director Manish Sharma said the company will achieve 30% of total flat panel sales of the year during the World Cup and IPL. A Samsung India spokesman said the market shift towards 40 inch and bigger panel TVs will get accelerated during this period.
About 8 million units of LED and plasma televisions were sold last year, compared with 6.5 million units in 2013. The industry expects to sell 10.5 to 11 million units this year due to the cricket season. The flat panel market last year was worth about Rs 19,000 crore, growing by 20%.


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Did you miss the 2020 CDIA Law & Industry Conference? Now is your chance to join us and listen to the rebroadcast of our highly popular keynote session with Andrew Smith, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection. Mr. Smith’s session addressed the FTC’s privacy priorities in his remarks, including:
- Upcoming revisions to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- The FTC’s position on Accuracy and the CFPB’s recent announcement about an upcoming accuracy study
- Piggybacking and how the FTC has recently brought cases against companies
- Addressed the industry’s long-standing concern that ID theft reports are being used as a tool for credit repair companies and what the FTC is doing mitigate against fraudulent usage.
- Red Flags Rule Violation & Data Breaches.
- Forthcoming changes to the Safeguards Rule


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The mother of a young woman whose life was wrecked by heroin has called for a new iPhone drug-dealing game to be banned.
Underworld , which will be available to download on the Apple phone later this month, allows players to peddle
virtual narcotics in real-world locations.
The free game, previously called Drug Lords but renamed in a bid to get it past Apple's censors, has been branded outrageous by Thelma Pickard whose daughter Amy has been in a seven-year coma
since experimenting with heroin at the age of 17.
Leading drugs charities have also condemned the game, saying it trivialises the harm caused by Britain's illegal drugs trade.
Thelma said: My daughter's life has been ruined by drugs.
If this game is allowed to come out, impressionable kids will play it and Amy's mistake will be repeated over and over again. Youngsters like Amy are exactly the people who download and play games like this on their mobiles. I just want to help other
families avoid the nightmare that's wrecked mine.


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Saturday Night Live (SNL) has roasted Donald Trump following his “major announcement” about his trading cards.
The comedy show honed in on the former president’s announcement this week that had conservatives pondering whether he would reveal his pick for Vice President.
But Trump stunned supporters and detractors alike when the announcement was not about his 2024 run and was instead for $99 NFT-themed digital trading cards – something that SNL was keen to mock.
James Austin Johnson opened SNL as Donald Trump with a special Christmas announcement where he defended the digital trading cards being sold for $99.
He said: “[It] seems like a lot, seems like a scam – and in many ways it is. But we love the Trump cards. We just love them. You can also get them for free by just going online and looking at them, maybe, I don’t know. Maybe taking a screenshot, but we would really prefer it if you sent the $99.”
Johnson also said those who bought the pack could win an “exclusive mystery prize” and showed they would be picked out from a box with the word “classified” on it, a nod to the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.
He was then joined by Mikey Day as Donald Trump Jr. who also praised the NFT trading cards, declaring them as a “totally legit product.” Day said: “These cards are fantastic and a steal.”
The trading cards were also a key talking point for Colin Jost during the Weekend Update segment later in the show.
Jost said: “Semi-retired maniac Donald Trump has launched a collection of digital NFT trading cards depicting him in various costumes including cowboy, superhero and, most unbelievably, the guy who didn’t dodge the draft. I’m honestly just relieved he is wearing an American military uniform.”
He also noted the move was unusual given the poor performance of NFTs in the marketplace and also brought up Trump’s meeting with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, alongside Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
Jost added: “It is such a funny move to get into NFTs now after the whole market just crashed. It’s like getting into Kanye now, which Trump also kind of did.”
The Trump trading card announcement was not only mocked by SNL, but was criticized by Trump’s supporters.
Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon declared he “can’t do this anymore” after he learned what the announcement was.
During a discussion with fellow ex-Trump advisers Steve Cortes and Sebastian Gorka, Bannon lamented that “nobody even talked” about Trump’s plans to battle the “left-wing censorship regime” if he was elected after the trading cards announcement overshadowed it.
He said: “I like Trump. This is not a good idea. Whoever advised Trump to sell NFTs shouldn’t be fired. They should be exiled.”
Despite the backlash, Trump declared his trading cards “made history” after they sold out within hours of being released.
The digital cards have now soared in price on the NFT marketplace OpenSea and led Trump to boast about the move on Truth Social.
Trump said: “We made history. My Trump Digital Trading Cards sold out in hours. Congratulations to the collectors. Thank you.”
As of Sunday morning the floor price for the NFTs was listed as 0.57 Ethereum on OpenSea, which is around $675 dollars.
Newsweek has contacted Trump’s office for comment.


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Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) is finally enjoying a little bit of relief. Intel’s stock price jumped three percent on Tuesday and has advanced nearly five points from its recent lows. But Intel stock is still in the doghouse compared to the overall market. The S&P 500 looks set to reach new all-time highs in coming weeks, and tech stocks are roaring higher as well.
Intel’s malaise is easy to understand. It is wildly out of favor at the moment, as are other leading semiconductor companies. That’s because it’s hard to handicap just how long the trade war will continue dragging on. And companies like Intel are highly reliant on China for product sales.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that Intel’s big bounce on Tuesday came with President Trump tweeting about progress in talks with China. Regardless, however, of whether a deal comes soon or still takes a while, INTC stock is a solid bargain at today’s levels.
Intel Asks For Huawei Relief
While a lot of U.S. companies have been caught in the trade war crossfire, chipmakers have suffered the worst. That’s because Chinese equipment makers tend to be the leading customers for many of these firms.
Reuters reported that Huawei, for example, buys $70 billion per year of components. Of this, they spend roughly $11 billion on parts from American suppliers. Intel, Qualcom (NASDAQ:QCOM), and Micron (NASDAQ:MU) lead the way in sales to Huawei. Not surprisingly, these firms have appealed directly to the government for trade war relief.
Intel’s executives spoke with the Commerce Department in May, and Qualcomm has been actively lobbying the government as well. If no action is taken, Huawei is expected to shrink its international smartphone shipments by around 50 percent.
It’s unclear if these efforts will sway President Trump and his aides, but Trump is clearly motivated by trying to make the stock market go up. Trump has complained about Fed Chair Powell’s tighter monetary policy and suggested that the Dow Jones index would be 10,000 points higher if the Fed had acted appropriately.
He also tends to tweet positive remarks about the economy whenever the market is sliding. With that backdrop, one has to think Trump will try to make a deal, particularly if semiconductor companies continue to slump in the interim.
Intel Stock: Super Cheap
In a frothy tech market, Intel remained a bastion of value in recent years. In late 2017, that suddenly changed, however. Intel’s stock price soared from $35 to nearly $60 inside of a year. That ended Intel’s nearly 20 year period of stagnant stock performance following the tech bust of 2001.
However, Intel stock has given back much of its recent gains. With shares down more than 20% from the recent highs while earnings continue to surge, Intel is a bargain again.
How much so? It’s now trading at 11x trailing earnings and just 10x forward earnings. Sure, there are some reasons for concern. Normally, also-ran AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) doesn’t cause Intel much trouble. AMD, for the moment, is offering one of its most compelling product line-ups in the past decade, and that has caused some concern for Intel’s market share.
Make no mistake though, Intel still has far more resources and a much larger research budget. They’ll keep dominating the PC chip industry for years to come. Meanwhile, other growth ventures such as Intel’s push into self-driving vehicle tech offer great potential in coming years. It’s amazing how the market is giving so little credit to Intel’s growth prospects. Just 15x forward earnings would lift Intel’s stock price to $67 per share.
Strong Dividend Policy
Intel stock is also a reliable source of dividend income. With bond yields cratering again, investors have been racing into defensive stocks like utilities, REITs, and consumer staples. So far, investors haven’t flocked into Intel yet. But, as an effective tech utility with a great balance sheet, conservative income investors should gravitate to Intel sooner or later.
At this point, Intel is paying a 2.7% dividend. That’s not huge, but it’s well above the S&P 500 and the 10-year treasury bond which are both at 2.0% or lower. And that tends to come with solid dividend growth as well. Intel has averaged 8%, 6%, and 8% compounded dividend growth over the past three, five, and ten years, respectively.
Intel Stock Verdict
No one knows how long the trade war will continue to drag on. I’d predicted that it would wrap up by now, and I’ve been wrong about that. Traders don’t have a good sense either, judging by how much the market swings erratically on every new tweet from Trump’s twitter account.
Looking at the bigger picture, however, it’s kind of silly how much impact the trade war has caused for Intel’s share price. The company remains one of the most dominant positions in the tech industry. And for the first time in a while, it has a robust pipeline of growth opportunities that can cause the company’s overall revenues and earnings to boom again.
With the stock market pushing to new highs, Intel should catch up once trade drama simmers down. I see Intel stock hitting $60 per share – just 13x forward earnings – in the coming months.
At the time of this writing, Ian Bezek owned INTC and QCOM stock. You can reach him on Twitter at @irbezek.


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In the UK, e-commerce is well established. The widespread availability of smartphones and tablets means that more and more consumers are using mobile technologies to shop, browse, review services and check the availability and price of products online, from anywhere.
The Global Retail E-Mpire study conducted by OC&C Strategy Consultants identified that the in 2013, the UK was “the world’s leading exporter of goods purchased online with a trade surplus of over $1 billion.”
Partner at OC&C, Anita Balchandani forecasts that “Over the next decade, online retail will become even more international…Consumers around the world use the internet as a global shop window. What used to be a local, national market is now a global one.”
There are many regions of the world yet to capitalise on the rapidly growing e-commerce industry but one of those emerging markets with real promise is the MENA (Middle East and North Africa).
Econsultancy, a “leading source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce” report that so far, the growth of e-commerce in the MENA region has fluctuated. In 2011 online sales grew by 63%. In 2012 they grew by 144% but in 2013 only 50% growth was achieved.
As the international agency explains, at first glance these figures “may seem to suggest that growth has peaked, but other factors play a part.”
Regional conflicts and the seasonal impact of Ramadan could be contributing to the instability of localised e-commerce development, but the MENA does have some advantages.
A study of e-commerce in the MENA commissioned by Visa identified that the region has a younger population than Europe, the USA and Japan with a median age of 25 who are “more open to embrace internet…e-shopping.”
Across many states, the labour force is multi-lingual and in countries like Bahrain, the absence of sales tax or VAT has “resulted in a controlled and low rate of inflation over the years that many investors find attractive.”
The issue of conflict and cultural differences will always pose difficulties to the global trade of any country. The biggest challenges faced by MENA nations who want to drive e-commerce are actually a matter of logistics, most notably payment options and delivery channels.
Work is already underway to resolve these problems.
Mawwell, a crowdfunding portal recently launched a service in the MENA to provide creative entrepreneurs with business funding, while digital payment giant Paypal has created new partnerships with Pokeware and the Cairo Amman Bank to develop online transactions in the region.
Furthermore, the MENA is about to come under the global spotlight as Dubai prepares to host the World Expo in 2020.
This is the first time that the event has been held in an MENA country and promises to attract worldwide investors and consumers to the region.
A key part of the Expo’s impact lies in the substantial $8.1billion investment Dubai is injecting into its infrastructure which will have a long term effect on its capacity to drive e-commerce, particularly in the delivery of goods.
Because the success of any e-commerce venture is largely reliant on the numerous ways that reliable delivery services facilitates online trade, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has confirmed that “e-commerce and supply chain integration are key pillars of the world postal strategy” for the MENA.
The combined efforts of international and local investors is making the MENA region an e-commerce hot spot for development which looks set to expand significantly over the next few years.
To find out more about supporting your e-commerce business with comprehensive international delivery support channels, contact the experts at Asendia.


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Ooyala, a provider of online video technology, unveiled a new set of video publishing tools that can be used to stream live video and secure video on-demand to iOS devices.
Ooyala asserted that it offers a modular, full-featured video solution and its suite of technologies and services will earn users more money, put their content on more screens at higher quality, give them incredibly detailed viewer analytics and easily integrate into their existing workflows.
The company claimed that it developed adaptive bitrate technology for Flash to give viewers the best viewing experience, no matter what the device or connection speed. And it is continuing to develop technology to ensure viewers have the optimal experience on all devices everywhere in the world. For example the company’s OoyalaDirect is an app that gives journalists and publishers super-fast upload and publishing direct from iPhones and Androids.
The newly released publishing tools are supposed to extend the reach and monetization capabilities of publishers and broadcasters. Along with these tools, Ooyala also released a set of cross-device analytics that reveal actionable insights into device usage, viewer preferences and overall video effectiveness over days, weeks or months.
The company explained that iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices are critical targets for video-and delivery must be secure, simple and easy to analyze for publishers. It is the first to deliver secure video on demand to iOS devices, allowing customers to confidently deliver and monetize video. Live streaming to iOS devices gives publishers access to vast mobile audiences on the most popular mobile devices in use today.
The analytics tools can be used to gain insight into viewer preference and device trends and by doing so maximize revenue with each stream. Individual video, label and account-wide analytics inform publishers and advertisers to enable optimal revenue strategies.
Toby Wright, chief technology officer at Telegraph Media Group acknowledged that the Ooyala real-time analytics have already been a huge benefit to Telegraph Media Group. The introduction of these new features will provide an even greater insight as to how audiences consume video on smartphones and tablet devices, as the group ventures into these digital territories.
Bismarck Lepe, president of products at Ooyala added that with their cross-device analytics they have already seen that mobile viewers watch twice as long as viewers on a browser. With insights like these, customers will be able to pitch, plan and monetize video more effectively.
Nathesh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nathesh's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell


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Buena Vista Games announced this past week it's acquisition of the award winning [i]Climax Racing[/i] game from Climax Group Ltd. This acquisition is important to BVG as this is the 3rd in house studio, and the first in Europe, to add more muscle to BVG's development arm. The other two are Propoganda Games, which operates out of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Avalanche Studios which has it's head offices in Salt Lake City Utah. This latest acquisition will allow BVG to begin to add high end racing titles to it's repertoire. No details on the deal have been released, say that is to occur sometime this month. Representatives from both companies, however, did release statements to the press on what they felt about this deal.
Graham Hopper, who is both the Senior Vice President and General Manager for BVG, stated that this deal with Climax Group Ltd will allow them to “…both reach into new genres and new markets for creative talent” and that “adding Climax Racing to our creative family will provide an additional catalyst for our continued growth in the video games market. Karl Jeffery, the founder and CEO of Climax Group Ltd, said only that BVG's acquisition of [i]Climax Racing[/i] was “an ideal component of BVG’s expanding portfolio of development talent.”
This is certainly true as the studio and it's products have earned numerous titles and nominations for awards including four “Best of Show” awards at E3 2006 from IGN. Tom Beckwith, the co-founder of Climax Group Ltd and the new vice president and general manager of Climax Group Ltd, stated that “This promises to be a mutually beneficial relationship and we believe that together we will make outstanding games for the next generation and beyond.” So, everyone seems satisfied all around..if you'd like more information on either company you can visit Buena Vista Games's site here at www.bvg.com and Climax Group Ltd's site at www.climaxgroup.com. More details on this story will be available right here at MyGamer.com as they become available.
Nick McCavitt at firstname.lastname@example.org


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Let’s talk crypto, Metaverse, NFTs, CeDeFi, and Stocks, and focus on multi-chain as the future of blockchain technology. Let us all WIN!
After closing yesterday with a 1% loss, JNJ stock was 0.34% down further in the pre-market today but is 0.72% up now. Johnson & Johnson announces that it will stop selling its talc baby powder in the U.S. and also in Canada.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) stock was down 2.50% in the past month to trade at around $150 at the time of writing. If we compare the current price with the previous trading, we will see a 0.72% rise.
However, it has gained a proportionally equal amount since the beginning of the year. The slow growth coincides with the news that the company will not be selling its talc baby powder in the United States and also in Canada.
The company has been accused of producing the powder, which has been a catalyst to several cancer patients according to different lawsuits. According to Reuters, the company is cumulatively facing more than 19,000 lawsuits from its consumers and their survivors.
Most of the plaintiffs claim the product is contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. However, most of them are still pending before a United States district judge in New Jersey.
The company said in a statement that it is steadfastly confident in the safety of talc-based Johnson’s baby powder, citing decades of scientific studies. As a result, investors remain wary of its stock, but on the other hand, motivated that the company is developing a possible Covid-19 vaccine. The confusion makes analysts not rate the pharmaceutical’s shares as high as the rest in the market, like Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA), for example.
Fundamentals Affecting JNJ Stock
Apart from the individual lawsuit cases, the company has been a target of a federal criminal investigation into how forthright it has been about its talc product safety. Around 41 U.S. states are investigating its baby powder sales.
“My subcommittee’s 14-month investigation revealed that Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that its product contains asbestos,” said U.S. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi. He described the decision to stop selling J&J’s talc baby powder as a major victory for public health.
The company has come out to disclose that it has been named as a defendant along with other drug-makers in more than 2,900 lawsuits. In one of the cases, an Oklahoma judge ordered the company to pay $572.1 million to the state for its part in fueling an opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing addictive painkillers.
However, Johnson & Johnson is appealing the Oklahoma Judge’s ruling, in bid to save the huge penalty. In a statement to the press on Tuesday, the company said that it had stopped shipping talc baby powder when the coronavirus crisis led to limits on shipping and manufacturing.
“Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising,” J&J said in a statement.
If you want to know more about other companies’ shares movements, the market news category is for you.


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Is Toys R Us coming back in 2020?
Bloomberg first reported Barry’s plans. “We have significant interest about how to bring the brand back to the US ,” Barry told CNN Business earlier this year. “We’re working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to bring it to life.”
How many Toys R Us stores are left?
After officially closing its doors in nearly 200 locations in 2017, Toys R Us open the two new stores in The Galleria in Houston, Texas, and in the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. The stores will be nearly 6,500 square feet — roughly one third the size of its big-box stores .
Is Toys R Us coming back in England?
Toys R Us are set to reopen stores – but, unfortunately for Black Country folk, not in the UK . The future for the Oldbury site of the collapsed retailer remains unclear – but there might be new hope. It closed 75 shops across the country last year, including stores in Solihull, Merry Hill, Oldbury and Coventry.
Where will Toys R Us reopen in 2019?
They’re finally returning to the U.S. ! Toy ” R ” Us is planning on opening two new mall locations in Houston, TX and Paramus, NJ in November 2019 .
Who shut down Toys R Us?
Toys R Us is closing or selling all of its over 800 remaining US stores, according to a report from the Washington Post, signaling an end of an era for the famous toy store. The news was apparently announced to workers today by CEO David Brandon ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing on March 15th.
What is Toys R Us new name?
Less than a year after Toys ” R ” Us liquidated its assets and shuttered all of its hundreds of stores, the company is back with a new name , new look and—perhaps most importantly— new sales strategy. The new company is called Tru Kids.
Are Toys R Us gift cards still good 2020?
Toys R Us is no longer accepting gift cards — here’s what you can do with them instead. Toys R Us and Babies R Us stores are no longer honoring gift cards as of April 21. That doesn’t mean they’re useless, however. Stores like Michael’s and Kmart will offer discounts and credit for shoppers with Toys R Us gift cards .
Did Amazon Buy Toys R Us?
Toys R Us won the short-term battle when it took Amazon to court 15 years ago to end a previous partnership, but the fact that the Toys R Us website now is linking to Amazon shows definitively that Amazon won the war. Back in 2000, Toys R Us proudly announced a deal to have Amazon create a Toys R Us site on Amazon .com.
What went wrong with Toys R Us?
The former leader of the toy industry, Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September after years of slipping sales and mounting debt. They said Toys R Us has failed to innovate its business model, incorporate technology or adapt to changing consumer behavior.
Did target buyout Toys R Us?
[+] The latest Toys R Us news – the announcement that any time it sells something online or in its new pilot stores, Target and Target .com, not Toys R Us , will be making the sale – made the new reality of Toys R Us hit home. Toys R Us is never going to be reborn, post-bankruptcy, as a retailer.
Can you still buy from Toys R Us?
Toys R Us relaunched its website on Tuesday, but you can ‘t actually buy anything directly from the site. Instead, when shoppers are ready to make a purchase , they will be redirected to Target.com, which has teamed with Toys R Us to power the new site.
Can you still buy from Toys R Us online?
Toys “ R ” Us is back online , thanks to a new deal with Target . Tru Kids, the parent company that acquired the defunct toy chain following its bankruptcy, has announced the relaunch of the ToysRUs .com website as it begins the process of opening its retail stores across the U.S.


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Market on the Square
What: Local produce, handmade crafts
When: 2:30-6:30 Fridays
Where: Downtown Gainesville square
More info: www.hallfarmers.org
Luba Rusk has been farming since she was 10 years old.
A garden full of squash and zucchini sits near her house. Down a hill sit the tomato plants, 16 varieties of heirloom tomatoes to be exact, plus beans. To the side of that and across the drive are the cucumbers. And along the drive, limbs of blueberry bushes hang heavy with ripening berries.
"I just like to get out, and to me, farming is my relaxation," she said after picking a few squash.
She'll be selling that squash plus zucchini and some plants at the Market on the Square in Gainesville, which starts Friday for its third year.
Steve Thomas, who started the market, said there will be even more vendors than last year, including local farmers as well as craftsmen.
"It's growing. We'll have everybody who came last year, so all of our old favorites," he said. "And apparently with the economy doing what it's doing, some people have taken up farming. So we have probably six or seven new farmers coming in this year."
Rusk has been selling at the market since it started. She also sells at the Hall County Farmers Market on Tuesday and Saturday mornings. She started selling her produce about five years ago, after retiring.
"You get out here, you can close your mind to the telephone; you can close your mind to business," she said. "Only thing you've got is you've got ground, you've got dirt and you've got plants that you grow. And you get the satisfaction of knowing that you started this from seed."
She says her husband, Dave, and grandson, Jordan Teague, are the muscle. Teague, 19, ran the tiller Tuesday, working to control weeds between the rows.
"This is a hobby that's gone amuck," she said, driving a golf cart between patches of growing plants. "My hobby has just grown and grown and grown."
Her tomatoes won't be ready for market until at least the end of June. Once that fruit starts coming in, Thomas said the market will start its Cast Iron Chef of Gainesville once again.
The competition, which will be every two weeks, pits local restaurants and caterers against one another using a "mystery box" of produce. They can bring their own meat to use in the dish.
Something new this year, though, will be cooking demonstrations every Friday "using whatever the farmers bring to show new and interesting things to do with them," Thomas said. They'll typically start around 3 p.m. and last about 10-30 minutes.
The market runs 2:30-6:30 p.m. every Friday and will feature at least 20 vendors by July as more produce starts coming in.


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The company delivered “an exceptional first quarter”, CEO Anthony Wood told analysts, with platform monetisation proving to be the biggest revenue driver.
Overall, revenue was up 79% year-over-year to $574m, while operating income was at $76m. Both of these were far higher than Wall Street analyst predictions, which estimated that revenue would be at $491m and that operating income would be at a loss of $55.2m.
Billions & billions
The stellar numbers underline Roku’s ongoing expansion and follow its investment in launching new content to The Roku Channel. It also acquired the IP from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s short-lived Quibi and more recently said it was looking for further original IP additions.
Roku users streamed an astonishing 18.3 billion hours in Q1, up 49% from this time last year. This translated to an ARPU (average revenue per user) of $32.14, up 32% year-over year.
While the increase of users was undoubtedly a positive, growth was slower than in Q4. This, CFO Steve Louden insisted, is due to Q1 typically being a “lighter promotional period in the retail calendar.”
While Roku’s platform segment, which encompasses its AVOD service The Roku Channel and advertising, is increasingly becoming the central part of the company’s business, device sales continue to be a strong money maker.
Player unit sales were up 14% year-over-year, with revenue at $108m (up 22% year-over-year). As for the platform business, revenue increased by 101% year-over-year to reach $466.5m.
Streaming shift in ‘full gear’
Roku CEO Wood explained that the platform revenue rise was because “the shift to streaming is in full gear… but there’s still a long way to go with a lot of growth ahead of us.”
He said: “If we look at advertising, for example, we’ve said historically that the biggest impediment or governor of our ad business growth has been TV buyers buying patterns that they traditionally tend to prefer traditional linear TV versus new things like streaming. And there’s a gap there as viewers move over to streaming versus the ad dollars.”
Wood said that the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic caused that difference to shrink, but “there’s still a big gap and a lot of room to go.”


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Russian consumers using online payment service Yandex.Money can now send money directly through Apple’s instant messaging service iMessage. “In order to send money to someone, a user opens iMessage, chooses a person from their contacts, selects the Yandex.Money app and specifies the amount to be transferred,” the company says. “The sender receives a message to confirm the money transfer. The sender then enters their Yandex.Money app password to complete the transfer.” Yandex.Money added NFC to its mobile app in April 2016.
- UK consumers eye up iris scanning for banking biometrics
- LG to develop its own MST technology?
- Samsung Pay set to go live in Canada?
- NXP to be bought by Qualcomm in US$47bn deal
- NFC to lead sharp rise in global smart packaging market


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Corporate debt recently passed the $1 trillion mark in a continuing sign of global financial displacement.Marketsread more
"Federal debt, which is already high by historical standards, is on an unsustainable course," CBO director Phillip Swagel said in the report.Politicsread more
The president's remark followed a string of criticisms aimed at his predecessors, whom he claimed had ignored China's alleged malpractice on trade.Politicsread more
President Trump liked Germany's sale of no-interest, 30-year bonds Wednesday, but investors weren't so eager to buy them.Market Insiderread more
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts said in a research note the "Off-Facebook Activity" feature "appears to fall somewhat short of the original pledge by CEO Zuckerberg of...Technologyread more
"If you look at the market over the past week, stocks don't need any help. They are roaring ahead, without the Fed doing anything," says the longtime market strategist.Marketsread more
Target CEO Brian Cornell still thinks the U.S. consumer is strong and spending. Target's latest quarterly results showed the big-box retailer is benefiting from that.Retailread more
Stocks rose on Wednesday as strong quarterly results from retailers such as Target and Lowe's lifted investor sentiment.US Marketsread more
President Trump insists the economy is healthy and says the only thing holding U.S. growth back is the Federal Reserve.Marketsread more
GOP donor John Childs has given over $330,000 to Republican fundraising committees since being charged with soliciting prostituion.Politicsread more
Trading volumes this week are well below recent averages, and that means this comeback may be suspect.Marketsread more
"I like bitcoin" and the security of the blockchain ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies, the California Republican said, as he criticized Facebook's plans for a Libra digital coin ahead of hearings on Capitol Hill this week.
Libra will be pegged to a basket of government-backed money, compared with bitcoin, which is highly volatile in price and derives value from factors including its ability to enable instantaneous, anonymous, global payments and as an investment.
Nobody controls bitcoin.
McCarthy did, however, say that bitcoin is not where it needs to be yet, alluding to the risks of cryptocurrencies being used by criminals and money launderers.
While Libra promises more stability, McCarthy remains concerned.
"When I'm on Facebook, I'm not the customer, I'm the product," he said. "Facebook is free because they sell your data to make money. Now they want to get into the business, and they're not bitcoin, in this Libra. They're not decentralized."
In Libra hearings by the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and House Financial Services on Wednesday, McCarthy said he's looking for the social media giant to address its potential anti-competitive behavior.
"I want to see decentralization because Libra concerns me that they're going to control the market," McCarthy said.
To address those concerns, Facebook set up Libra to be run by a nonprofit consortium supported by a range of firms and organizations, including including payment companies Visa and PayPal, as well as tech giants eBay, Lyft, Spotify and Uber.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey strayed from McCarthy's and the Trump administration's critical views o Libra, telling CNBC in a separate interview Tuesday that Facebook's planned digital coin should be given a chance.
"I don't want to presume in advance that we've got to prevent the development of some new innovation," Toomey offered.
However, the Pennsylvania senator added he wants to know the real motivation behind Libra because Facebook has said that it's not about making money.


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US reminiscence chipmaker Micron remains to be experiencing income approach beneath final 12 months’s highs, however the firm believes the business has bottomed out, which means costs for consumers are more likely to rise once more as demand picks up.
Micron disclosed within the outcomes for its third quarter of fiscal 2023, ended June 1, that it introduced in income of $3.75 billion, which is definitely up from the $3.69 billion reported within the earlier quarter, however a whopping 57 % down on the $8.64 billion it turned over in final 12 months’s Q3.
However, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra was in a position to inform traders the corporate had overwhelmed its personal income steerage for the quarter, and likewise stated he believed the reminiscence business had “handed its trough in income” and that market situations would start to enhance as the availability and demand steadiness is slowly restored.
“The continued enchancment of buyer inventories and reminiscence content material progress are driving larger business demand, whereas manufacturing cuts throughout the business proceed to assist cut back extra provide,” Mehrotra stated on the corporate’s earnings name.
Because of this, pricing tendencies are bettering, he added, and Micron has larger confidence that the business has handed the underside for each quarterly income and year-on-year income declines.
By “pricing tendencies are bettering,” Mehrotra in fact implies that the hunch in reminiscence costs due to falling demand earlier within the 12 months has slowed and even reversed, which must be seen as a warning to consumers that DRAM and flash storage costs might be on the rise once more quickly.
Market intelligence outfit TrendForce indicated beforehand that there had been a 21.2 % drop in revenues for all DRAM producers in the course of the first quarter of 2023, with the common promoting worth (ASP) falling for the three main suppliers (Micron, Samsung and SK hynix).
Micron’s Q3 DRAM income was $2.7 billion, representing 71 % of whole income however down by 2 %, whereas Q3 NAND income was $1 billion, representing 27 % of income and up by 14 %.
Mehrotra inevitably mentioned the embargo on Micron’s merchandise by China’s Our on-line world Administration (CAC) and its potential influence on the enterprise. He warned that gross sales to China account for about 1 / 4 of Micron’s worldwide income, and the corporate estimates that half of that is in danger.
Micron prospects have been contacted by Chinese language “vital info infrastructure” operators or representatives of the federal government over their use of Micron expertise in tools, he stated, as beforehand reported in The Register.
“This vital headwind is impacting our outlook and slowing our restoration,” Mehrotra stated, including that Micron was working to mitigate the influence.
Micron stated its expectations for bit demand progress for the entire of 2023 have been decreased to low-to-mid single digits for DRAM and excessive single digits for NAND, which it stated is effectively beneath the anticipated long-term figures for these markets.
Micron warns China’s ban might value it $4 billion annual income
For its fiscal This fall, the corporate stated it expects to see business demand proceed to enhance and forecast a rise in bit cargo regardless of the impact of the China ban on enterprise. It forecasts income to be $3.9 billion, plus or minus $200 million.
The corporate expects to see “file whole addressable market (TAM)” throughout 2025, which in translation means the reminiscence market is ready to be bigger than ever, together with a return to “extra normalized” ranges of profitability. ®


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News By Tag
News By Place
FDA Announces Hearing to Explore Rx-to-OTC Switches, Francesco International to Participate
The FDA announced a hearing to explore prescription to over-the-counter switch opportunities. Francesco International LLC, a pharmaceutical and healthcare consultancy predicted this change and recently published a breakthrough report on the issue.
Francesco International LLC, a cutting-edge pharmaceutical think-tank and healthcare consultancy based in New Jersey, predicted this change in the industry and recently published a breakthrough 100-page report regarding the issue, “The Major Global Expansion of Rx-to-OTC Switch by 2016©”. Francesco International CEO, Steven Francesco will be submitting a request to present at this historic meeting. Francesco has presented at similar FDA policy meetings in the past years.
The Francesco International report presents a strong case that selected prescription drugs will gain OTC status in the near future thanks to "enabling" modern technology, such as smart phones, kiosks, digitalized home-based healthcare hubs, private home healthcare networks, etc.
The combination of these drugs plus new enabling technology will create a group of nonprescription drugs that Francesco International refers to as “enabled” over-the- counter (OTC-E™) drugs. These OTC-E™ drugs have several distinct characteristics. Most important, this new group of drugs will be used primarily for chronic therapy treatment. Amongst others, therapy areas impacted will be hypertension, dermatology, lipid-lowering, osteoporosis, arthritis and incontinence. For example, drugs such as Lipitor will be used OTC by 2016 for lowering cholesterol to help prevent cardiovascular disease.
“This is a breakthrough report that focuses on the changing dynamics of Rx-to-OTC switch between now and 2016,” says Francesco, the principal author of the report.
The report is for companies interested in exploring the promising opportunities of Rx-to-OTC switch that will surface in the next five years. In addition, the report identifies key therapy and product areas for switches that can benefit from a combination of the drug plus the use of the exciting new technology.
According to Francesco, “The US healthcare system has been in an unsatisfactory gridlock for some years now with payers, providers, pharmaceutical companies, patients and consumers all somewhat frustrated. Finally, the major players are now starting to move and some of the new dynamics, especially the contribution of technology, are becoming apparent. This report captures what is happening now and what is likely to happen over the next few years, especially the Implications for Rx-to-OTC switch. This report is essential for those who want a guide for solid long-term growth coming from the global Rx-to-OTC space.”
For more information on “The Major Expansion of the Rx-to-OTC Switch by 2016©” or Francesco International visit www.franint.com.
About Francesco International LLC
Francesco International Inc. has been actively involved in pharmaceutical lifecycle management with a focus on Rx-to-OTC switch for nearly two decades, consulting for numerous pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The firm published the newsletter, “SWITCH,” as well as SWITCH Market Impact studies. It has its own proprietary planning model “Max the Molecule” for assessing opportunities. CEO Steven Francesco has authored over fifty articles and essays on the pharmaceutical industry and is a recognized expert on product life cycle issues. He has been on the board of several companies and is also the CEO of MMDerm LLC.


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The biggest opportunity in 2020 is quickly approaching.
Monday, November 26, 2018 (Cyber Monday), went down as the biggest day in online sales in American history.
But sales continued to increase in 2019, as consumers spent $601.75 billion online with U.S. merchants, up 14.9% from $523.64 billion the prior year, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce quarterly e-commerce figures.
Online sales are expected to surpass 2019 by an additional 18%.
This holiday season has the potential to be the largest yet, with a huge percentage of sales poised to come through online channels.
The only question is, how are you going to maximize your brand’s profits this holiday season?
There are two options (one which is likely to earn you a much higher ROI than the other).
Just like the rest of the year, your options are to reach out to new leads or nurture your existing ones. Let’s explore both.
Option 1: Acquire new leads.
It’s always important to move new leads into your brand’s universe. Reaching more of your market isn’t a bad thing.
However, it becomes incredibly costly around the holidays. That’s because the competition is high. This means higher ad costs, yes, but also more competition for free and organic searches as well.
Every other brand suddenly becomes your competition because they’re competing for your customer’s time, attention, and hard-earned cash.
Plus, consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that they have had a relationship with before purchasing from brands that they first interact with during the holiday season.
This makes this option incredibly expensive, leaving you with a lower margin if choosing new leads as your most targetted audience this holiday season.
Option 2: Capitalize on Existing Leads
The cost of selling to existing leads is far, far less than acquiring new leads. But, that’s in normal times. During the holiday season, that cost differentiation is even greater.
Klaviyo, an email service provider that specializes in e-commerce (and my recommendation if you’re an e-commerce store owner), analyzed top-performing stores during the 2018 holiday season. They found that 48% of 2018 BFCM sales came from customers first active between Q1 ’17 and Q3 ’18.
Email was a top driver of these sales.
In fact, one of Klaviyo’s biggest takeaways was that focusing on acquisition at the expense of tapping into your existing email subscribers is a costly mistake.
Now that BFCM is approaching, it’s time to tap into that lead base that you’ve grown all year long.
Hands down, the best way to do that is via email marketing.
Email allows you to connect with and nurture your existing leads at a very low cost.
So… what’s your plan for this holiday season? Do you have the resources and strategy in place to maximize your 2020 profits?
If not, it’s time to take action.
Reach out to book a consultation to discuss your BFCM plan. We’ll map out a plan to maximize your sales over the next 90 days.


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18 May Tomlinson: Roads and cars will change, companies could make…
Falling gasoline prices, weakening supply chains and stalling economic growth are putting the brakes on road projects and electric vehicle sales, but these headwinds will only delay, not stop, the necessary overhaul of the U.S. transportation system.
As the Coronavirus Recession drags on, governments will boost infrastructure spending to put Americans back to work. We should make roads and rail our top priorities because the inexpensive movement of people and goods is what underpins economic strength.
In regular times, more than 100 million Americans drove to work, 26 million children rode 500,000 school buses, and 30 million trucks traveled 800 million miles a day. We spend a lot of time, fuel and cash getting around, and there are plenty of opportunities to become more efficient.
For years, automakers have summed up the future of transportation with the acronym ACES: autonomous, connected, electric and shared. Over the next 20 years, we will transition to electric taxis that drive themselves using 5G networks to communicate with other cars and the roads themselves.
While that may sound like science fiction, companies and governments are spending billions of dollars every year to make ACES a reality. The nation whose businesses perfect ACES tools the quickest will dominate the transportation industry for decades.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra reiterated the company’s commitment to electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles on this month’s earnings conference call. She is prioritizing the Cruise autonomous vehicle as part of “our vision of a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”
“Our EV and AV work also continues uninterrupted even as many of our engineers work remotely,” she said. “That means the production timing of key entries like the GMC Hummer EV, the Cadillac Lyriq crossover EV and the Cruise Origin AV remained fully on track.”
GM and other Western automakers face fierce competition from the Chinese government, which is pouring billions into EV and AV development. Chinese-owned Volvo will roll out a new XC-90 that self-drives on the highway in 2022. Chinese electric cars are already commonplace in Asia.
Barra is old enough to remember the 1970s when Japanese automakers anticipated changes in the U.S. market and flooded the country with compact cars. Ford may be willing to fall behind by cutting EV and AV investments, but GM, Tesla and other U.S. brands are smarter.
New cars and SUVs with cool features get most of the attention, but the secret to a smart car’s success will be smart roads. Highways will tell cars how to ease congestion and avoid accidents.
German highways already close lanes, adjust speed limits, and change tolls throughout the day to ease congestion. If the inner loop gets jammed up, these systems slow the number of cars heading onto it. I’ve driven them and they are remarkable.
Roads will soon detect accidents and predict jams using artificial intelligence and then use 5G networks to send signals instructing other vehicles to take another route. Traffic lights can time themselves to match the number of cars at the intersection.
More futuristic technologies will equip roads with wireless charging for electric vehicles passing over them. Humans will gladly give up the steering wheel when the computer network is more efficient than any driver.
China and Europe are spending billions on developing and testing these new technologies. China has 300 smart city experiments alone. If the United States does not act quickly to encourage innovation, we will find ourselves yet again dependent on foreign manufacturers for the latest tech.
TOMLINSON’S TAKE: Trains and rail make more sense than cars and roads
For too long, and especially now, U.S. policy has propped up yesterday’s industries rather than encouraging companies to become global leaders. The Coronavirus Recession offers an opportunity to look forward, not back.
Securing America’s Future Energy, a lobbying group of retired generals and business leaders, has laid out a plan for speeding the U.S. transportation transformation called Get America Moving Again. The group calls for less reliance on foreign energy and the development of American-made technology.
“In periods of economic hardship, there is a tendency to pull back on forward-looking investments to focus on the preservation of – or a return to – the status quo,” the group said. “In the case of the U.S. transportation sector, acting on this reflex and withdrawing from investments in emerging technologies would pose an existential threat to the nation’s competitiveness vis-à-vis foreign competition.”
COVID-19 should make us reevaluate how we have always done things. The drop in air pollution and drop in traffic from everyone staying home should inspire us to work doubly hard to…


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Amana Colonies adapting, evolving to recoup losses
AMANA — For many years in the mid-20th century, the Amana Colonies were the No. 1 tourism destination in Iowa.
Visitors came to the rolling farmland and villages in Iowa County to eat German food, shop for locally produced items and clothing and buy Amana appliances and heirloom-quality furniture made by skilled craftsmen.
Over the last decade, annual sales tax revenue began to fall from $35.4 million in 2000 to $26.8 million in 2006 as fewer people bought large items of furniture and other communities, like Dubuque, lured tourists with new hotels, indoor water parks, museums and other attractions.
The Amana Colonies also has lost three well-known restaurants, The Amana Barn, The Brick Haus and Zuber’s, since late 2003. On the plus side, the Rose & Thorn Public House in Middle Amana offers a non-German dining alternative and plays host to live performers on weekends.
Bill Leichsenring, second-generation owner and president of the Ox Yoke Inn restaurants in Amana, believes the Amana Colonies became too complacent and need to change.
“When I walk through the dining room and ask customers about their experience, I hear a lot of ‘How come most of these businesses aren’t open after 5 o’clock?’ We’ve got to listen to our customers and respond to their needs,” Leichsenring said. “We have a whole new generation out there that wants something different from my folks and my grandparents wanted, and in some respects, what I wanted.”
John Peterson, president and chief executive officer of the Amana Society, agreed that the number of visitors is down from the “heyday” of the 1980s and early 1990s.
“We have competition from the greater mobility of people,” Peterson said. “They go to Colorado to ski and Cancun for spring break. They don’t necessarily have to come to Amana, but they still come here and the numbers in the last few years have held up relatively well.”
Changing spending habits
Over the last several years, Peterson said the size of large appliance and furniture purchases began to show a noticeable decline.
“The Amana General Store last year had the best year in its history, so it depends on what you have for people to buy,” Peterson said. “They will spend $20 for food, $10 or $15 on something from the General Store, but they may not spend $2,000 at the Amana Furniture & Clock Shop.”
Peterson said that prompted the introduction of a line of “counter” items that can be personalized with laser etching.
“We’re making things like clocks, jewelry boxes, mirrors and plaques that can be produced in advance, personalized and taken home,” he said. “Last year, what we call ‘small counter items’ were the largest seller. We don’t get as much per unit, but we make it up in volume.”
Bruce Trumpold, manager of the Amana Furniture & Clock Shop in Amana, said the business employs eight craftsmen, down from 15 to 16 when there was greater demand for furniture and grandfather clocks. Trumpold said greater efficiency has enabled a smaller number of craftsmen to produce a higher volume of product.
“Furniture is still very important to us,” Trumpold said. “We just found another area where we can serve customers better who come into our store. Amana furniture, Amana clocks and custom Amana furniture are still a big part of what we do.”
The Amana Furniture & Clock Shop has a website that offers its products to a worldwide audience. The shop also uses Facebook to reach a younger and broader demographic of shopper.
Targeting next generation
Peterson said the Amana Society has taken other steps to bring the next generation of tourists and shoppers to the colonies.
“Some of the best Octoberfests that we’ve ever had occurred over the last two years,” he said. “We’re looking at other kinds of one-day or weekend events that we can offer, including more events at the RV park. We brought back the Cajun festival last year after a couple of years of absence and it was very successful.
“Some of our merchants are doing things on their own. Millstream Brewery is having ‘Bike and Stop by for a Beer Days.’
“We encourage it because when people are doing that, they might stop in another shop or dine in one of our restaurants.”
Peterson said the Amana Society also is selling buildings that can be put to a better use by encouraging the development of new businesses.
“We moved the Christmas Shop merchandise into the Amana General Store and sold the building to Jenise and Ithiel Catiri, who have operated Catiri’s Art Oasis in Amana for about a decade,” Peterson said. “Businesses that no longer appeal to people coming here will go out of business and new people will come in and offer what people are looking for.
“We’re trying to look not only at who comes here, but who do we want to come here and what can we do to attract them.”
Clientele, needs change
Jenise Catiri said she has seen Amana’s clientele change since they opened their studio in 2001.
“When we first came to town, it seemed like there was a lot of tour buses,” Catiri said. “We still have that, but Amana has been evolving. We have a lot more to offer in terms of modern conveniences like a good cappuccino shop and the quality of life here.
“It’s really a good place to create. Each year, we invite artists to come to our studio and paint during our Plein Air event over the Labor Day weekend.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to see artists painting and appreciating the atmosphere in Amana.”
Leichsenring, who also is president of the Amana Colonies Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the Amana Colonies do a good job offering an authentic historical experience for tourists, but he believes more is needed to attract a new generation.
“What we lack is something for families and children, and we need a flagged motel here,” he said. “The Amana Colonies Golf Course needs a flagged hotel and we need that to happen very soon. We have wonderful small bed-and-breakfasts and independent hotels, but we need something that’s on the reservation network radar.”
Trumpold, the third generation of his family to work in the Amana Furniture Shop, is optimistic that weekend festivals, new businesses and new lines of merchandise will attract the next generation of Amana tourists.
“While we’re still building the same quality, what we’re building has changed. Our core values will not change,” he said. “I think you will see that in Amana in general.
“You will see new artisans, galleries and crafts that weren’t here 10 years ago.”
Comments: (319) 398-8366; firstname.lastname@example.org[gallery columns="2"]


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Member Flex and NextFlex are teaming up to deliver a keynote next month at 2017FLEX in Monterey, California. Speaking to this year’s conference theme of “Accelerating to Manufacturing,” Dr. Anwar Mohammed, senior director of the Advanced Engineering Group at Flex, and Jason Marsh, NextFlex director of technology, are set to deliver a talk during the June 20th opening plenary entitled “Flexible and Stretchable Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing for Wearables: Challenges and Solutions.”
The 2017FLEX Conference keynote will showcase the dual perspectives of Flex, one of the largest volume global manufacturers of smart products, and NextFlex, America’s Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute, fully connecting the challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions for achieving large scale manufacturing of wearable electronics. Flex will describe the most challenging manufacturing problems facing the wearables industry, such as water ingress, flexibility/stretchability, interconnection, and the lack of standards for reliability testing followed by potential solutions in emerging manufacturing technologies such as nanomaterials, low temperature soldering, stretchable conductors, printable batteries and water resistant coatings. NextFlex will then outline relevant development projects now underway at the Institute focused on these and other issues, and provide insight on how collaboration between Industry, Academia, and Government is a model for realizing the promise of manufacturability of wearables and enabling the commercialization of novel new products in this growing market.
Anwar Mohammed, Flex
Dr. Anwar Mohammed is a senior director within the Advanced Engineering Group of Flex, an international manufacturing company with an annual revenue of over $20B. Dr. Mohammed has over twenty years of active and prominent involvement in the Microelectronics manufacturing technology space. He is an acknowledged industry leader in developing advanced technologies for the wearable technology and stretchable electronics landscape. He is a seasoned IP strategist with a keen sense for intellectual property development with a portfolio of over 40 patents to his name. Dr. Mohammed was recently honored as a NextFlex Fellow in 2017 and is also a Fellow of International Microelectronics and Packaging Society since 2011. Dr. Mohammed has been regularly invited as a key note speaker to many conferences to share his vision on wearable technologies and stretchable electronics.
Jason Marsh, NextFlex
Jason Marsh is responsible for setting the technical direction of NextFlex, including managing Technical Council activities. Prior to joining NextFlex, Jason worked in Japan, India, Germany, Mexico, Malaysia, and China, where he lived between 2003 and 2008, establishing greenfield factories for Kyocera. As Vice President at Insulectro, Jason focused on new materials and supply-chain strategies for the printed circuit board and flexible hybrid electronics industries, focusing on high reliability applications. Jason studied materials science and robotics at Stanford University, and worked on early versions of 3D printing using ceramics and metals, as well as developed instruments for physics experiments such as Gravity Probe B. He has served on advisory boards and consulted for companies in artificial intelligence, outdoor equipment, solar power, and agriculture.


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The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is expected to launch soon, but it seems that Samsung isn’t neglecting the current-model Galaxy Watch Active. Samsung has announced that a big update is coming to the first-generation that will, among other things, bring an adjusted app drawer that’ll work better with the Galaxy Watch Active’s touchscreen.
Bixby is also being updated, with Samsung’s virtual assistant now possessing added functionality. This includes the ability to start customised exercise routines, find out time differences between cities, and easily control the SmartThings ecosystem. According to Samsung, Bixby’s also learns from your routine and preferred questions, becoming progressively more helpful over time.
But the highlight of the update (for now, at least) is the updated app drawer. Previously, users had to rotate the list of apps to get to a new page, but now, a simple swipe will help to navigate between pages. As the Watch Active lacks the rotating-bezel that’s on the Galaxy Watch, this certainly brings a level of optimisation to the Active that wasn’t there before.
You’ll also now have a “Goodnight” mode that not only changes the UI to a minimalistic watch face during late hours, but will allow users to check the time without being bothered by notification alerts during set hours. These settings are customisable, so the added feature is very much welcome.
Lastly, there have been updates to the health/fitness aspect of the aptly-named Active, with automatic swim tracking added, along with a new look for the “Breathe” guide. You’ll also be notified whenever your heart rate falls below a pre-set figure, too.
Have you received the update on your Galaxy Watch Active? Let us know in the comments section.


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2014 SI issue predicting Astros’ World Series win selling for big money
The incredible story of how Sports Illustrated predicted all the way back in 2014 that the Houston Astros would win the 2017 World Series continues to amaze.
The best tweets about SI’s prophetic 2014 Astros cover https://t.co/OxxhSkE1oN pic.twitter.com/aXNTIj7E1o
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) November 2, 2017
Even more amazing, though, is how collectors are shelling out vast sums of money to get their hands on the suddenly valuable issue.
Sports Illustrated is selling reprints of the cover only for $19.95. To have it framed will cost collectors $79.95. Unfortunately, both of those offerings are currently sold out. But for those collectors who covet procuring a copy of the actual issue can scour the secondary auction market. And they better be prepared to pay up big time.
The winning bid for one issue — with an original publication date of June 30, 2014 and featuring World Series MVP George Springer on the cover — was a whopping $540 on eBay. ESPN reports that two issues have sold for as much as $1,025 each, with an average price of $280.
The going rate for other available issues on eBay appear to have a minimum set at approximately $100 with bidders willing to offer substantially more.
Interestingly, the now-celebrated, prophetic cover almost didn’t happen.
True story: If US doesn't give up last-second World Cup goal to Portugal, this 2014 cover is soccer. (Glad for SI it was Astros.) pic.twitter.com/zhQYHG1wKK
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) November 2, 2017


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Shoppers will be more cautious about gift-buying this holiday season as high inflation and worries about a possible recession cut into their spending plans, retail experts said.
Many of those who choose to shop in stores and/or online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, considered the unofficial kickoff of the holiday shopping season, will be hunting for bargains or trading down to cheaper brands, experts said.
With well-publicized reports of retailers, such as Kohl’s, Walmart and Target, having abnormally high amounts of inventory, some shoppers will be waiting it out.
“I suspect that a lot of people realize that because the economy is slower than it was last year, that they can probably wait and they’ll get some good bargains later in the season,” said David Swartz, equity analyst in the consumer sector research group at Morningstar Investment Service in Chicago.
What to know
- Inflation and economic worries may cool consumer demand.
- Some shoppers may bide their time, betting on steeper discounting in the weeks ahead.
- Analysts differ on whether retailers will see real sales growth, beyond the inflation rate.
West Babylon resident John Bocca might shop on Black Friday if he catches some good deals, the father of a 12-year-old daughter said Tuesday outside a Target store in Copiague.
But with his living expenses rising steeply — his rent tripled when he and his girlfriend relocated in October — their Christmas gift-giving will be reduced, he said.
“We absolutely talked about how everything will be cut back and scaled back a little bit because we can’t have the elaborate Christmas that we’ve had in years past. Just money is very tight and we have to watch our budget,” said Bocca, 41, a sales vendor for a paint company.
Copiague resident Jose Argueta, 49, will visit Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City and Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station on Black Friday but he will buy fewer gifts than usual, he said.
He already has told his family, including his five children and eight grandchildren, that he’ll be cutting back.
“It’s not going to be like it used to be. … Everybody [is] hustling, like we don’t make enough money in our jobs,” said Argueta, a restaurant server.
While the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday are still regarded as an indicator for how retailers will fare over the whole holiday season, the period continues to lose its significance, partly because retailers are offering deals earlier.
Total sales during this holiday season — November and December — are expected to grow 4.5% compared with the same period in 2021, which is in line with the average of the past 20 years, according to S&P Global Ratings.
But much of this holiday season’s sales growth is tied to inflation, the Manhattan-based financial analysis company said.
Adjusted for inflation, holiday sales actually will contract as consumers allocate more of their spending for essentials, according to S&P.
“There’s going to be fewer literal things under the Christmas tree even though [shoppers] … have spent more dollars, because things are just more expensive today than they were a year ago,” said Sarah Wyeth, retail sector lead at S&P.
Other sales projections are more optimistic.
The National Retail Federation's "expectation is that we will have real, inflation-adjusted, growth for the holiday season," said Danielle Inman, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based trade group.
The federation is forecasting that holiday sales will grow between 6% and 8% to between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion compared with the same period last year.
In 2021, holiday sales grew to 13.5% over 2020 and totaled a record-breaking $889.3 billion, but much of that performance was due to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic’s weak sales in the 2020 holiday season.
“It was a bit of an anomaly last year. This year is going to be tougher … certainly for department stores, which, in the U.S., have been on the decline for many years,” Swartz said.
Record discounts online
Even online sales will take a different turn this year.
Online discounts will reach a record high, an average of 32% off, but total online sales growth is expected to grow only 2.5% to $209.7 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. It will be the smallest growth increase for the season since Adobe started tracking the data in 2012.
“The 2.5% [year-over-year growth] is considered a softer spending environment, driven by factors including persistent inflation offline, rising rates/cost of borrowing, and an expected return to in-store shopping” as pandemic-related anxieties subside, said Vivek Pandya, lead analyst from Adobe Digital Insights, in a statement.
The national inflation rate in October was 7.8%, the highest for the month since 1981, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The average cost of groceries, or what the bureau refers to as "food at home," was 12.4% higher in October than the cost a year earlier. It was the highest year-over-year inflation for October since 1978.
So — since consumers will be focused on necessities — gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants will be among the sales winners this holiday season, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Other retail winners this holiday season will be discounters, including off-price stores, and other value-oriented “retailers that cater more toward essential needs,” said Zain Akbari, an equity analyst at Morningstar.
But don’t count high-end retailers out.
Luxury products, such as high-end purses and cosmetics, has been outperforming the broader retail market and will continue to do so throughout the rest of the year, as higher-income consumers aren’t letting the high prices of gas and groceries affect their shopping habits, Swartz said.
“Higher-end consumers continue to spend at good rates,” he said.
With Cecilia Dowd


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Twang Partners, Ltd. has redesigned its Twangerz Flavored Salts, a line of low-calorie, flavored salt blends for fruit, popcorn, lollipops, paletas and more.
In addition, they now are available at select H-E-B stores in Texas in addition to most convenience and liquor stores throughout Texas.
A San Antonio, Texas-based family-owned maker of salts and seasonings that may be best known for its Twang citrus-flavored beer salts, Twang Partners refreshed Twangerz’s packaging to feature a more animated design for each flavor—Lemon Lime, Lime, Chili Lime, Pickle and Mango Chili. While the formula remains unchanged, the identity of the brand has been redesigned to include a 3-D appearance.
“Our family grew up adding chile salt to snacks, and the Twangerz brand was largely inspired by our childhood,” said Elysia Treviño-Gonzales, CEO of Twang Partners. “We felt it was time to animate the brand and roll out some fun new packaging; it’s all a bit playful on purpose.”
Twangerz historically has been one of Twang’s more kid-friendly brands—in comparison to its beer salt and Twang-A-Rita cocktail rimming blends—and some of the new Twangerz labels have strategically been designed with a younger audience in mind.
Twangerz originally was introduced in 1986 as a simple packet for convenience store retailers looking to provide their customers with a quick, grab-and-go spicy addition for salads, sandwiches, fruit, vegetables and salty snacks like chips, nuts and popcorn.
The rebranded line of Twangerz will be available by mid-May. Consumers are encouraged to join Twang’s social media campaign and tell the company how they use different flavors of Twangerz and send their photos to to the company using the hashtag displayed on the new packaging, #HowDoYouTwangerz.